Emotion Detectives: Co-Designing Inclusive SEL Games with Preschool Children

Abstract

Preschool-aged children are still rarely involved as genuine co-design partners in the development of Digital Educational Games (DEGs). In participatory design research, they are often positioned as users or testers, while adult assumptions continue to dominate design decisions. This exclusion is especially significant in game design, where children’s ways of imagining, narrating and representing experience could inform more meaningful educational technologies. This paper presents a participatory co-design method and derives four preliminary design principles for inclusive preschool social-emotional learning (SEL) games from an exploratory workshop, “Emotion Detectives,” conducted within a broader Educational Design Research (EDR) project aimed at co-designing an inclusive digital educational game for preschool-aged children. The game’s pedagogical framework draws on the CASEL-5 competencies and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), with the goal of supporting SEL through accessible, developmentally appropriate digital play. The workshop was conducted with families from a disability support group using a low-fidelity, hands-on co-design toolkit. Children and caregivers collaboratively created three artefacts for each game concept: a protagonist profile, a narrative storyboard, and an interface sketch. To ensure coverage across the full SEL framework, each family group was randomly assigned one CASEL-5 competency. Reflexive thematic analysis of the artefacts and field notes showed that children could meaningfully contribute to co-design when the process relied on tangible materials, symbolic play, and caregiver mediation. This paper proposes four preliminary design principles for SEL-oriented DEGs in early childhood: use non-human protagonists to create symbolic distance for emotional exploration; design fail-soft feedback systems that support trial-and-error learning; integrate accessibility and representation from the outset as core elements of gameplay and narrative; and structurally embed balanced CASEL-5 coverage across interaction and progression. The study presents a co-design approach suited to preschool children and argues that their exclusion is shaped by methodological choices rather than by developmental limits.